ELECTRONIC RESOURCES IN A
NEXT GENERATION CATALOG
Wendy Robertson
The University of Iowa Libraries
Electronic Resources & Libraries, 2008
OVERVIEW
Next generation catalogs and Primo
 Old “Smart Search” at The University of Iowa
 Implementation issues
 New “Smart Search”
 Features and Examples
 Problems
 Moving where users are
 Future plans

WHAT TYPES OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCES?
Licensed/purchased full content (journals, books,
audio, maps etc.)
 Licensed/purchased databases
 Local digital content (images, audio, video etc.)
 Local full text
 Local websites (including finding aids)

WHAT IS A NEXT GENERATION CATALOG?
“It’s designed less like a “catalog”—an inventory
list—and more like a finding aid. It contains data
as well as metadata, and it is bent on doing
things with found items beyond listing and
providing access to them.” – LITA blog, July 7,
2006
 Examples:
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NCSU’s Endeca implementation
Open WorldCat –OCLC
Primo –Ex Libris
Aquabrowser Library –Bowker (e.g. University of
Chicago)
Encore–Innovative Interfaces (e.g. Michigan State)
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SELECTED FEATURES OF A
NEXT GENERATION CATALOG

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Faceted navigation
Federated searching
Full text searching
Interaction with other systems/use of API’s
Multiple works merged (FRBR)
Notification of new items by topic etc.
Personalization, tagging
Reader’s advisory/recommendations
Relevancy ranking
Reviews
Search terms highlighted
Spell checking, did you mean…?
WHAT WE ARE AIMING FOR


Simple to use, single search box for all our
content
With high quality content and good metadata
PRIMO
The University of Iowa’s choice for a next
generation catalog
 Finding and discovery tool
 Not meant for the advanced researcher
 Work in progress (“Everything is Beta”)
 Does not yet have all possible features of a next
generation catalog

“SMART SEARCH” BEFORE

Locally created search of
Library Catalog – keyword search
 E-journal A-Z list
 Local database of databases, websites, and book and
journal collections (previously called the “Gateway”)
 Libraries website

Results from 4 sources not merged
 Did not include digital collections

E-resources
displayed in
upper left
(always at top,
searching in
collection of
<2000 items)
Top 5 results
display for each
source
Click “more” for
additional
resources
E-resources
displayed in
alphabetical order
No separate
interface
E-journals displayed in
alphabetical order
Separate interface available
A-Z list from SFX
This interface still exists
Website results
displayed in
limited relevancy
order
Originally no
separate
interface
Catalog results
displayed in
reverse system
number order
Separate interface
available
Traditional ILS
This interface still exists
Sorted by date,
author, title
Digital Content Management System (ContentDM)
This interface still exists
No cross
searching of
with other
resources
PRIMO TIMELINE
Worked on implementation summer 2007
 Focused on

Indexing, display, faceting
 How to load data
 Basic functionality
 Appearance , branding

Local soft release in late September
http://smartsearch.uiowa.edu
 Full release in mid-January
 Two updates implemented since then
 V.2 will come out this spring

GETTING INFORMATION INTO PRIMO:
CATALOG
Not a live connection—records need to be loaded
 Loaders exists for MARC
 Aleph catalog – loaded in multiple times a day

New and updated records loaded
 Records with changes to circulation information
loaded

GETTING INFORMATION INTO PRIMO:
A-Z LIST

Changed procedures to use MARCit records for
packages, consortial agreements and free titles
Primo gives us the single record display we had been
wanting
 Change in ARL stats gave us more flexibility


Loaded missing titles into Aleph
GETTING INFORMATION INTO PRIMO:
E-RESOURCES DATABASE


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Added field for Aleph ID
Loaded basic records into Aleph
 Database had only brief information
 Standardized publisher information
Added 930 fields to existing records (controlled vocabulary and
misc terms)
GETTING INFORMATION INTO PRIMO:
CONTENTDM
Loader exists for Dublin Core
 We use LC Authorities when possible in CDM


DC lacks structure of MARC so some manipulation
of names not possible for complex names
Assess how subjects and types can best work
with facets
 Results varied depending on CDM collection
settings (standardizing)
 Some data inconsistencies in CDM
(standardizing)

EXAMPLE DATA FROM CDM

http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cgi-bin/oai.exe?verb=ListRecords&set=uipress&metadataPrefix=oai_dc

(http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cgi-bin/oai.exe?verb=ListRecords&set=uipress&metadataPrefix=qdc)
NEW SMART SEARCH
Electronic resources database and digital
resources completely integrated with traditional
catalog resources
 Federated search is separate option

Could be merged with local resources
 Non-local database searching slower
 Ex Libris working with vendors to improve response
time

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At this time the Libraries website is not included
T
Digital
object
from
CDM
Collection
level record
for digital
collection
from
catalog
Traditional
MARC
records from
ILS
Federated search option
Large results
can be managed
with faceting
Single record
Merged
display of
print and
online records
These come from
the electronic
resources database
Digital objects usually are
under resource type images
or text resources etc., but
in this case they are 3-D
objects
Image from CDM
INCLUSION OF LIBRARIES WEBSITE
Goal was to have libraries website included at
full release
 Public service said not critical
 Still very important for Special Collections
finding aids
 Separate search available

WEBSITE

Current status:
Successfully crawled www.lib.uiowa.edu (omitting
pages that don't make sense).
 Modified an open source Perl product Swish-E
Spider: http://swish-e.org/docs/spider.html
 Hopefully live before the end of the semester


Our biggest challenges:
Crawling logic—Making sure we don't inadvertently
access URLs that time out
 Character encoding as related to HTML and XML
entities—we've had to tweak standard Perl packages

MERGING RECORDS IN PRIMO
Two separate functions—De-duplication and
FRBRization
 Rules assess similarity between records. Those
that meet a threshold for similarity will be
merged.

Dedup records are completely merged; individual
records cannot be viewed in Primo but do have a link
to Aleph catalog
 FRBR records are merged for display, but also allow
viewing of individual titles

EXAMPLE OF SINGLE RECORD DISPLAY
Single record. Online
access shows on brief
results.
Single link to Aleph
catalog.
EXAMPLE OF DEDUP PRINT + ONLINE
Online record takes
priority for display
Single record. Online
access shows on brief
results.
Two links to Aleph
catalog.
EXAMPLE OF FRBR ONLINE + PRINT
Online record takes
priority for display
FRBR link
Print record.
Published Washington
DC, 1990-
Online record.
Published Washington
DC, 1995-
NAME DISPLAY FROM CDM
ILS names not inverted
CDM names
inverted. I could not
get them to display
properly unless
inverted
ILS & CDM NON-MERGER
Working on this
Few collections
have individual
object both in
catalog and in
CDM
EXAMPLE: M.F.A. THESIS AND M.F.A ART
Print thesis and image of thesis both in Smart
Search
 Imperfect because different sources for name

LC NAF vs. ULAN (Union List of Artist Names)
 No authority record in this case

What artist calls
self
Official
registered
name on thesis
KNOWN JOURNAL SEARCH – BEFORE
KNOWN JOURNAL SEARCH – AFTER
KNOWN JOURNAL SEARCH – BEFORE
Not on page
KNOWN JOURNAL SEARCH – AFTER
KNOWN E-RESOURCE SEARCH – BEFORE
Search for OED
brings Oxford
English Dictionary
to top
KNOWN E-RESOURCE SEARCH – AFTER
Search for OED
brings Oxford
English Dictionary
to top
Icons
previously
labeled which
confused
library staff
KNOWN DATABASE SEARCH – BEFORE
All the Ebsco
databases
Most popular happen
to appear
Can easily get to rest
KNOWN DATABASE SEARCH – AFTER
Resource type based on
cataloging
Integrating resource still
in BK format with 006s
May be lacking 008/21 d
CHANGE: Databases now
a resource type
Computer file with 008/26 d
or e
DID YOU MEAN….?
LOCAL ADDITIONS TO DID YOU MEAN….?
Selected words
added at request
of staff
Ulrichsweb is
#8 in list
FACETING
Not magic—there has to be data in the records
(i.e. good cataloging)
 We added terms based on codes in fixed fields
(e.g. Newspaper, CD etc.)

Searched for Mozart:
GENRE HEADINGS FROM CDM + CATALOG
Trade cards
Science fiction
Szathmary
African American
women
Iowa City
ILS
ILS
CDM
CDM includes dates
but all in one field.
Subfield d not
included from ILS
(local choice)
CDM
Unsure why CDM is not
clustering with MARC

Call number faceting for unclassified and
electronic journals
Faceted down to
RC554-569
Search
originally had
152,637 results

Faceting for general topic
LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES
Links made by an API
A little bit
circular
SEARCH BOXES WHERE USERS ARE
Dummy course page.
Library widget now a
default for all courses.
iGoogle page
IE search option
Facebook
No Smart
Search
box….yet
It is just being
made right
now and
should be
there after the
conference
PROBLEMS
Online resource link is not being seen
 Databases have been difficult to find because of
labels
 Known item searching can be more difficult
(especially for major works of literature)
 Librarians concerned it “dumbs down searching”

HOWEVER: Users seem to like it
 Concern that faculty (as expert searchers and older
than average students) may not adapt as well as
students

FUTURE PLANS
Inclusion of Libraries’ website
 Talking to LibGuides about including content
 Google book search and CIC’s Shared Digital
Repository (metadata and full text)
 Full text from local e-journals
 Investigating getting tags from LibraryThing
 Will include data from institutional repository

™
CONCLUSION

Need to be flexible
Willing to change searching method
 Able to adjust to constant beta
 Able to keep up with user’s needs & request
 Able to incorporate new technology

Tool that works for many people much of the
time, but not for all people all of the time
 ILS not going away
 Electronic resources are especially important for
access and have some unique problems

THANKS!
Contact:
Wendy Robertson
Electronic Resources Systems Librarian
Digital Library Services
The University of Iowa Libraries
wendy-robertson@uiowa.edu